A Month of Kurosawa: Sanshiro Sugata (1943)
To celebrate the upcoming release of my book, Akira Kurosawa: A Viewer’s Guide, due out Dec. 15 from Rowman & Littlefield — preorder here! — I’ll be doing capsule reviews all month covering every single Kurosawa film and posting (very) brief excerpts. These will be short impressions and recommendations, nothing more. For a full, detailed analysis of each, grab the book! Sanshiro Sugata (1943) It’s perhaps fitting that this, Akira Kurosawa’s directorial debut, is a story about a man of immense talent being awakened to the joys of life through that talent. Sanshiro Sugata is about a competitive fighter who must overcome his impulsive, often violent nature in order to find inner peace. Kurosawa wasn’t violent, but he was passionate and driven, so there are some parallels…
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